Love and War
by Angel of Apathy
Summary: The Cullens move on, like they always do - but they're not the only unusual people. One person, the outsider at school, hated and shunned, goes head on against the Cullens - with a surprising ally. A Jasper story. Due to votes: Eventual Jasper/OC.
1. Preface, Kira

**I resisted as long as possible, but this plot bunny has been killing me. The reason I was resisting is because I'm paranoid it will turn out horribly Mary Sue. In fact, I still think that it might. If you see any signs of the dreaded Mary Sue please yell at me for a long time. By the way, if this has any weird mistakes that's because I'm writing it using handwriting recognition stuff and my handwriting is **_**very**_** bad!**

**Oh, I almost forgot: this takes place after Eclipse. The original plan to vampirise Bella was what happened – no Renesmee. Don't ask me 'what happened to so-and-so', because either it will be explained later or it won't be important**

**EDIT: I decided to change (slightly) where this story is going... so please check ALL the italicised flash-forward thingys for changes. Especially this one. **

**RE-EDIT: I changed it AGAIN, so please re-read preface for coolness's sake and forget the changes to italiced bits.**

**Love and War**

(yes, the title sucks. My titles always do. And I think someone's already using this title, but oh well. Le sigh.)

Preface

They stood assembled in front of the house. The air was thick with apprehension and fear. They could almost taste it. The eight figrued arranged themselves to recieve whatever came through the trees. One heart raced in the group. The others were near silent.

A change in the air turned all their heads. A slight breath of wind carried a hint of scent, and faint sounds. The seven saw it before the last, the eighth. But even the last figure saw it eventually.

The shapes slowly coalesced through the trees. And in the deadly silence that followed, their was one very clear gasp of pure fear.

**(A/N Now how do you like me Clo? You see how annoying it is??)**

Kira

Their parents were out, and so the two children were being babysat by their aunt and uncle. The younger child, Joe, was only five, but his sister Mary was nearly seven. She was old enough to have noticed that her aunt and uncle always looked exactly the same. They had never aged. Her aunt, so similar to Mary's father with her chestnut hair and almost cat-like face, came to tell her a bedtime story, and Mary's uncle, very different with his blond curly hair, followed them in.

"What story would you like today?" asked Kira, Mary's aunt, smiling.

"Tell me your story. How you and Jasper met. Was it love at first sight?" Her child's view of the world saw every untold story as a fairytale.

Her uncle, Jasper, laughed at that, and Kira smacked the back of his head. "Be nice, you. Well, it wasn't quite love at first sight, was it Jazz?"

"Not quite's an understatement. It couldn't have been further from love at first sight. You were not nice to me."

"You were a freak."

"I want to hear the story!" Mary was getting impatient.

"Alright, alright! Well, it started when Jasper moved into my school…"

It was that time again – time for the Cullens to move again. The seven **(A/N yes, I mean seven!)** of them had outstayed their time in Alaska – where they'd moved after Forks. This time, they moved across the bulk of the US to Maine on the north east coast. The Cullen (and Hale) children were joining High School again, with Bella, Edward as juniors and Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper as seniors **(A/N I'm English, I don't know the American education system!!). **Carlisle had found a job at the local hospital, and they kept the some old story of a doctor and his adopted children. After all, it had always worked before, so it would continue to work now… right?

………………………

It was not a good day for Jasper. Starting school always provoked interest from the other students, and adding that to the already violent cocktail of emotions and Jasper had as close as vampires could get to a headache. It was only third lesson, and he was already considering ditching. The only reason he didn't was because his 'siblings' would assume it was for the other reason – bloodlust – and think he was weak. He hated their suspicious, wary glances following him wherever he went. His control was improving greatly, but he was still the weakest in the family. He wanted to be in control like they were. More than that, he wanted to be as in control as Carlisle, not even feeling the burn, not suffering with every fire-laden breath he had to drag in.

Third lesson was art. Jasper was praying that it wouldn't be another still-life class; he couldn't stand another hour of drawing fruit.

"Ah, yes, Hale, isn't it?" asked the art teacher, a young man with clothes covered in paint and charcoal dust.

"That's right, sir." Jasper had to be polite to authority figures; it was imprinted into his psyche.

"I'm afraid the only free seat is at the back, you'll have to partner Kira."

Jasper couldn't understand why the teacher was feeling sympathetic – what was wrong with this Kira? He went to take his seat at the back of the class, already dreading the close proximity of whoever Kira was.

Just as the teacher turned to write the lesson plan up on the board, the door swung open and a girl walked in. She must be the mysterious Kira.

"Sorry I'm late, sir, I had to speak to Mr Jameson."

"Just get along to your desk, Kira, and make sure you show our new student Jasper where everything is."

She walked – slowly, like she was deliberately antagonising the teacher – back to the desk and folded elegantly into the chair. Immediately someone nearby coughed the word 'freak!' She tensed slightly, but didn't react. Instead, she focused her eyes on the board where the teacher had finished writing. They had to draw a scene containing cliffs and water Jasper glanced away from the board to see Kira laying pencils on the desk.

"If you need materials, they're in the drawers over there," she said grudgingly, like it was an enormous effort for her. "If you need anything you can ask." Her helpful words were at odds to her unfriendly tone.

"Thanks," Jasper replied, wondering what had made her so unfriendly. Her emotions seemed normal enough for a student – boredom, tiredness, a little crabbiness, but nothing which backed up her outward hostility.

. . . . . . . .

Despite her bitterness, Kira was clearly gifted at art. After an hour she had created a black-and- white seascape framed by heavy dark cliffs. It had a sort of intangible, powerful energy about it. Five minutes from the end, the teacher made them all switch work with their partners to compare work. Jasper was impressed by Kira's work –it was detailed and captured the scene well. From the tenor of her emotions, Kira was impressed as well. She ran her fingertips over the pencil lines, lightly tracing the design of the waterfall tumbling down a stony cliff face Jasper had drawn.

"You're pretty good, you know," she said, her tone pleasant for the first time.

"Thanks. You're good too," Jasper replied, smiling. Unfortunately this used up the last of his air. If he wanted to seem normal, he would have to endure the fire. He gritted his teeth and inhaled quickly. To his surprise, the air didn't burn his throat. It tasted cool and clear, as if there was not a human girl sitting a few feet away from him.

"You're staring at me," Kira pointed out, her dominant emotion humour.

"Sorry. Drifting."

"That's OK. Hey, did Mr Acton say anything to you about sitting next to me?"

Surprised, Jasper answered her. "Yeah, he did, actually. His actual words were something along the lines of 'I'm afraid the only spare seat is next to Kira.' Why?"

Kira muttered something along the lines of 'Bloody teacher can't be freaking open-minded.'

"You get this a lot?"

She sighed. "A lot, a lot. Everyone here thinks I'm weird."

"Can't think why," Jasper murmured, not intending for her to hear.

"I hope that wasn't sarcasm."

"Definitely not." She was smiling, and he judged it safe to tease her.

"Alright, class, pack away and hand your work in as you leave," called Mr Acton, interrupting the chatter that was bubbling through the class now that actual work had ceased. The clatter of pencils, bags and chairs filled the room. Kira smiled at him once more, dropped her sketch onto the pile by the door and was gone.

……………………

At lunch, the Cullens met up and wandered to the canteen. On the way, they discussed how long it would take for whichever table they chose to sit to be vacated by the previous occupants. Emmett was betting on less than five minutes. Jasper was preoccupied with Kira. Firstly, there was the fact that her blood appeared to only smell of clean air and water Then secondly there was something about that didn't seen quite right. In fact, it didn't surprise him when, as they walked into the canteen, she was sitting at a table by herself, sketching quietly and eating a sandwich. As hers was the least occupied, that was the table chosen by the Cullen-Hale 'clan'.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" asked Edward, doing the 'dazzling' thing. Kira grinned, and her emotions showed she was clearly not dazzled. Jasper smirked until Edward hit him on back of the head.

"Go ahead, sit here. But no more fighting, or I'll drop a textbook on your head."

"That was a bizarre threat," Bella commented, as they all sat down.

"And I got plenty more where that came from," she grinned. For the first time Jasper noticed her accent was English. Probably a little like Carlisle's had once been. The image made him smirk again.

………………

By the end of the day, the burn in Jasper's throat had changed from smouldering embers to a blazing forest fire. The temptation to skip last lesson was only beaten by his desire to seem strong – even if it was just an act. Last class was film studies, so he was hoping that he wouldn't have to do much. In fact, he didn't have to do anything – the class was watching a film. Once again, the teacher seemed sympathetic that the only empty seat was next to Kira, who was late again.

She wandered in ten minutes after the lesson had started, not offering an excuse this time. Her emotions were not as simply student-like as before. There was a black undercurrent of anger and bitterness. Perhaps this was why no one liked her – it was a violent mood swing. The glare she unleashed on the class reflected that. What could cause something like that?

The film was one Jasper had seen already. In the darkened room, he could let his eyes wander around – no one could see him in the dark. Kira leaned back in her chair, eyes closed. The anger flared again, so strong Jasper's hands clenched involuntarily. He needed her to stop – adding anger to the all-consuming thirst would end badly. He cautiously sent out a wave of calm. It worked – for a few seconds. Then the anger and frustration spiked again and Kira's head snapped up and she looked directly at him. In the dark room, Jasper saw her eyes gleam, reflecting the light like cats' eyes.

Trying to solve the riddle that was Kira, Jasper barely noticed the film ending and the lights snapping on. A burst of noise signalled then end of the lesson.

There was no way to know it was coming. In the process of dumping their things into their bag, one of the class members didn't notice the scissors. One blade slid across their palm. Blood welled to the surface. Suddenly the forest fire blazed white-hot, a furnace, hot as the centre of the sun. Vegetarian morels abandoned Jasper. All that remained was the overpowering call of the fresh blood.

**Meh. I don't think this is too good, but what do I know? By the way, I've already written 4 and a half chapters of this before I started posting it so updates hopefully won't take too long, until I hit chapter 5…**

**Feedback is greatly appreciated; I want to make this better!**


	2. Secrets

**Disclaimer (I forgot last time! Let this apply to the whole thing): I don't own anything. Not even some of Kira – she's more of a medley of people I know rather than an original.**

**Kira is pronounced like the city Cairo but with an 'a' instead of and 'o', by the way. Ky is her nickname.**

**Thanks for reviewing/story alert-ing. Reviews make me grin like a crazy, Jasper-obsessed fangirl. Which I kinda am…**

**On a random note, it was my birthday today and I had asked my friend to get me Jasper. Sadly she couldn't make it to America to kidnap him, so I may rope together my fanpire friends in the summer and we can go around America stealing Twilight actors.**

**I got a Twilight-themed party and we spent ages re-creating stills from the movie. I got to play Jasper XD. **

Secrets

_Blood welled to the surface. Suddenly the forest fire blazed white-hot, a furnace, hot as the centre of the sun. Vegetarian morels abandoned Jasper. All that remained was the overpowering call of the fresh blood._

He tensed, preparing to spring. Then suddenly to smell of the blood was gone. Kira stood between him and the faceless victim. Her eyes blazed strangely.

"Go." It was an order. With her cool, clean scent obscuring the blood, it was easier to obey. With a ripple of air he was gone.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Kira relaxed slowly, praying no one had noticed the exchange between her and Jasper. Fortunately everyone was more interested in getting out of school as fast as possible. She joined the rush, moving more slowly than the others to give herself time to think.

Kira had known from the second that she sat down in art that there was something wrong about the Cullens. Her skin prickled when she even thought about them. And there was a chance that if she could feel something was wrong with them, then they could feel that she herself wasn't totally normal. Of course, the other students in school could tell something was different, but they didn't know what. The Cullens could be very dangerous for Kira.

…………………

She walked towards her car, near a join between two of the school buildings. As she passed the dark alley created by the two blocks, she was grabbed and yanked into the space.

"What the hell, Jasper??" She knew it was him.

"I think I could ask you something similar."

"Actually I think in this situation I'm the one asking what the hell."

"No." His eyes were black pits, merciless and frightening. "I'm the one asking you questions."

"Technically you've not asked me anything yet," Kira pointed out. She couldn't keep her mouth shut, even when it was best not to comment.

A snarl ripped out from between Jasper's teeth. Kira snarled back, sounding more like a wild cat than a human. "I want to know what you are. Now." Jasper let each word fall clearly, and felt for the first time a flicker of fear from her.

"You want to know what I am? Well, that makes two of us," she hissed, looked Jasper dead in the eye.

"You don't know?" This threw him off balance.

"No. And while we're on the subject of things I don't know, what exactly are _you_? Because the answer sure as hell isn't human." **(A/N I wrote that while listening to 'Human' by The Killers! Major LOL moment.)**

"_Erm, Jazz? Mary's asleep."_

"_Good. I don't think she needs to know the rest. __Let's go before we wake her up."_

_They wandered out and settled together on the sofa. "So, I was thinking…" Jasper started._

"_Really? That's a rare event!"_

"_Ky."_

"_Sorry. Do continue."_

"_Thanks. I was thinking… can you remember all of the story?"_

"_How could I forget? We're nearly up to the bit where you scared me half to death."_

Jasper stared at her for a full ten seconds. "Not here," he snarled out eventually.

"Fine."

He snatched the car keys from her hand and climbed into the driver's seat. Kira glared. In fact, she kept a thorough level of glaring for the entire journey. Jasper pulled over to the side of the road in the forest and got out.

"Let's walk."

Apprehension filled the air – Kira was nervous. She followed him into the forest, going deep enough so that anyone who happened to drive past couldn't see them.

"What are you?" she asked again, her voice quiet now – scared. Good – she _should_ be scared.

"Don't make any assumptions until after I've explained."

"OK…"

Jasper sighed. To outright tell someone broke all the rules, but it would help find out what Kira was…

"I'm a vampire."

Pure fear sheeted through Kira. Clearly she believed him – knew enough of the supernatural was real to understand.

"And… you… drink…"

"I didn't bring you out here to eat you. My family, we resist the temptation to drink human blood. We live on animals."

The fear lessened slightly. "And being a vampire – what does that _mean_?"

"We're strong. We can't survive on human food. We don't age… Are you OK? You look like you're about to faint."

Kira blinked, and staggered slightly. She sat down on the autumn leaves covering the floor. She was shivering, and it wasn't from the cold.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Japer spoke softly, his earlier anger at her gone. "Really. I promise. You _are_ safe with me." To back his words up he added in calm to the emotional mix. It seemed to work – Kira stopped trembling and after a few minutes she didn't look like she was about to collapse.

"Are you OK now?"

"I think so. Nearly."

"So, does that answer the question of what I am?"

"Yes. Which I guess will mean you want to know what I am?"

"You guess right. I know you don't know exactly, but any information…"

"It would be easier to show you. Don't overreact, or anything. Or eat me."

She got up and took a few steps back. She closed her eyes, concentrating. Then her form dissolved like water and flowed smoothly into the form of a snow leopard. Then she flowed into a different shape, this time an eagle. Then a deer. Then a lioness. Then back to human. She met Jasper's eyes, trying to gauge his reaction.

"I'm a freak. _That's what I am_."

"How? Just… how? And for how long?"

Kira sighed. "Maybe this would work better at my house, not in the middle of the forest. And I'll be having my car keys back, thanks."

………………………

"Your family won't mind me being here?" Jasper asked as they pulled up in front of a small house on an empty lane with no other houses around.

"It's only me and my mum, and she's still at work."

"Excellent."

They sat in the living room, and Kira told her story.

She'd been ten when it first happened. The liquefying and freezing as her body shifted into something else. She'd kept it secret – even at ten she knew people would think she was mad. And it had seemed tame – sometimes even fun. Until that night.

She'd come home from running around the English woods near where she lived to find her father on the kitchen floor. Blood was pooled around him. Her shock was so strong that for a few moments she didn't notice them message.

'Kira. We are coming for you. Be afraid.'

"We moved after that. Into London at first, but Mum was still paranoid about axe-murders – I never told her about the message. Three years ago we moved here."

Outside, a car engine drew closer. Kira's eyes flew wide. "Don't tell her about any of this! She doesn't know – she can't!"

"I won't tell," Jasper promised.

"Ky! Are you home?"

"Why would I not be home, Mum?"

"You could have got detention. Again. Oh, who's this?" asked Kira's mum, walking into the living room and seeing Jasper.

"Mum, this is Jasper – is it Cullen or Hale?"

"Hale."

"Jasper Hale, in that case. Jasper, this is my mum, Emma Night."

"Nice to meet you, Jasper. Ky, sweetie, I have a meeting tonight. Are you OK to fix yourself dinner?"

"Rather than fix it for both of us?" Kira smiled. "Sure. Have fun at your meeting."

"Oh, I will. What could be more thrilling than a bunch of old office workers talking about money?"

"Having splinters shoved under your fingernails?"

The banter between mother and daughter was surprisingly normal for such an unusual person.

"See you later. Again, nice to meet you Jasper."

With that, Emma was gone.

"She seems nice."

"She's clinically insane, but I suppose 'nice' covers it. Did you notice I have a strange teenage boy in the house and she doesn't even ask why you're here? She's going to be out all night and she doesn't care what the hell I do while she's gone. Man, the freedom is _incredible._"

"I could say pretty much the same. Carlisle and Esme are very relaxed. I'm an hour late and they haven't called to –"

They were interrupted by Jasper's phone ringing.

"That was very nearly incredible timing," Kira commented.

"Hello?"

"_Jasper? Where are you?"_

"I'm kinda busy, Carlisle."

"_Busy doing what?"_ Carlisle was suspicious now.

"Nothing," (much)

"Jasper? Who's on the phone?" Kira was mostly curious, but a tiny vindictive part of her wanted to get him in trouble.

"_Why can I hear humans in the background? Jasper, you're not hunting, are you?"_

"No. Listen, now _really_ isn't a good time.

"_I think you need to explain this."_

Kira gestured for Jasper to hand her the phone. He gave it to her and she put it to her ear.

"Doctor Carlisle Cullen, am I right?"

"_Who is this?"_

"My name is Kira Night, Dr Cullen. I'm afraid I borrowed Jasper for a little while, I hope you don't mind."

"_Is there a reason you needed to borrow him?"_

"Well, originally he borrowed me. Something to do with the fact I stopped him attacking an innocent classmate. Then I borrowed him because of nearly attacking an innocent classmate. Do you need him?"

"_No, not really. But he nearly attacked somebody?"_

"Only nearly. No one died.

"_Could you put Jasper back on the phone, please?"_

"Jasper, your turn to explain. Do me a favour and don't make me seem too insane, 'kay?"

"Sure." He took the phone back. "Carlisle, I'm sorry –"

"_It's not your fault. Did anyone see you?"_

"I don't know. I left straight after."

"No one saw us, I checked," chipped in Kira.

"_Good. This Kira… do you think she's a threat?"_

"I don't know. I don't think so. Maybe I should bring her to meet you."

Kira jerked her head up to look at him. "Uh, sorry to butt in, but _hell no._ I'm barely able to think straight with _one_ vampire, I really don't need to be surrounded by them."

"They won't hurt you, Kira. Besides, Carlisle is a pacifist."

"_Jasper!"_

"It's true! You're opposed to any kind of violence."

"Alright, fine, I'll come. But if anyone attacks me I'm holding you personally responsible!"

"See you soon, Carlisle."

"_I'll prepare the others."_

**Ah, this is more crap than the last chapter! Constructive criticism is needed!**

**A birthday review, maybe? **


	3. Discussion

**God, this story is so bad! But it won't leave me alone, so I'm praying it will get better as it goes on.**

**Thanks for all the encouraging reviews.**

**Random quote for any of you who care: "These maths questions are hard." "You just have to **_**think**_** about them, Lyd." "I don't like thinking."  
Me and my friend in maths. I'm the one who wasn't thinking because I don't like it.**

Discussion

After hanging up the phone, Jasper turned to Kira.

"Do you want me to drive, or can we travel a bit faster?"

Ky's eyes glittered. "Faster how?"

"Faster by running." He grabbed her and swung her onto his back. "Hold on tight."

She clung on obediently, and he took off into the trees. The speed whipped Kira's hair back and she tightened her grip. The journey to the Cullens' house, although it was over three miles, took only a few minutes. Just out of sight of the house, Jasper stopped and set Kira down. The pure adrenaline and exhilaration coming off her was overpowering.

"You enjoyed that?"

"I wanna go again!" She was grinning.

"Maybe later. Time to meet the family."

………………

They were all waiting just inside the door, gathered in the hall. The last time a human was introduced to the Cullens, they tried to seem as unthreatening as possible. This time, the exact opposite was true. All of them stood gathered together, quite a few of them glaring. Kira took one look at them and turned straight round to get out. Unfortunately for her, Jasper was behind her and caught her, pushing her back into the house.

"When I said I really could do without being surrounded by vampires, did you even consider listening to me?"

"I considered it. I then decided to ignore it."

Ky glared at him, and then cast her eyes over the rest of the family. Emmett was grinning, perpetually cheerful. Rosalie glared, her lips drawn back into a snarl. Edward was slightly crouched in front Bella, also snarling and protective. Bella herself was smiling a little, as was Esme. Carlisle was calm, his eyes gentle. Kira met his eyes first, recognising where the power lay in the family. Then she turned to look directly at Edward. The force of his glare pushed her back a step; into Jasper who was standing behind her to make sure she didn't escape. Edward shifted his glare to Jasper for a few seconds, then it moved back to Kira.

"That may be true, Jasper, but I can't tell if she's safe."

"If I thought there was danger I wouldn't have brought her here."

"If she hurts anyone…" It was clear that the threat wasn't just if Kira hurt anyone – it was for if she hurt one specific person.

"Oh, for God's sake Edward, I'm not a breakable human any more." Bella frowned a little. Edward turned to her and started whispering too quietly for Kira to pick up. Jasper grimaced – she could guess whatever was being said was bathetic.

Carlisle stepped forward, subtly drawing the focus onto himself. "I'm glad you agreed to come here, Kira. It makes it easier to settle this when you're co-operating."

"I want to finish this as much as you. But could you ask your family to stop glaring at me? It's a little unnerving."

He glanced at the others. "Why don't we take this to my office? Jasper, if you could come as well, that would be helpful."

Kira wondered why Jasper would be helpful, but she was grateful – despite him nearly attacking someone in front of her, she felt almost safe around him.

……………

A few hours later, and Kira's head was spinning from new information. When it got to the point where she couldn't formulate coherent answers, Carlisle relented even though his curiosity about what she might be was unsatisfied. She seemed slightly dazed until Jasper lightly touched her shoulder.

"What?"

"Ready to go back?"

"Sure. How are we travelling this time?"

"This time, we are travelling in style."

"I'm guessing style is different to crazy-thing running?"

They had reached the garage by this point.

"Kira, _this_ is style."

_This _was a sleek, black Lamborghini Gallardo.

"Holy crap. That's _never_ your car!"

"Well, if that's true there is a very annoyed car owner out there somewhere."

"Seriously though. You can't own this car. It's way to expensive."

"My family is probably richer than anyone else in the US. Don't forget that we have been alive for a lot longer than we seem."

Kira walked slowly around the car, tailing her fingers over the paint, admiring the sleek lines with the eyes of someone who knew their cars well.

"How fast will she go?"

"Unmodified, 195 mph. Since Rosalie fixed it, it does up to 210."

Her eyes widened slightly. "I will be your slave for life if you let me drive her. I properly love this car."

He narrowed his eyes. "Do you promise not to crash? This car is like my baby."

"OK, creeped out now. But sure, I promise not to crash your baby."

"Will you be careful around the corners?"

"Yes, I will be careful. In fact, I will treat this car like it's made of thin, fragile glass that will break if I so much as breathe on it, and I will drive at less than a hundred miles per hour, and can I _please_ just drive the damn car already?"

He grinned. "Go on then."

Kira slid into the driver's side, powering the soft top down. The engine roared as she revved it.

"That's not treating it like delicate glass."

"You are surprisingly gullible for a vampire," she laughed. With that, she floored it and shot out of the garage. The snarling engine shook the air around them and wrenched the car along close to its top speed. Despite frowning, Jasper was sharing the exhilaration that Kira was producing – the love of high speeds was part of his nature.

They made the journey back to Kira's in nearly as short a time as it had taken them to get to the Cullens'. When they pulled into Kira's drive she sat, hands still clenched on the steering wheel, staring out at the car's bonnet.

"I will never experience that again. This car has ruined me for all other cars."

"That is the power of the Lamborghini."

"I will never ever buy a car now. I will spend my life wishing for this."

"You know I'm not going to give it to you."

"Damn, you saw through my cunning ruse."

She unlocked the door and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

"Are you OK? You seem to be taking this too calmly."

She opened her eyes and stared at Jasper, looking directly into his face. "No. How the hell would I be OK? I know you're here to make sure I don't run away. The others are back at your house discussing what to do about me. And you know the worst part? You are here. You are the one who trusts me the most – you could swing their vote one way or the other. But you're the one trusted to keep me here, alive, and so you can't."

"Perceptive."

Anger spiked through her. "You don't care! They could decide to kill me and you don't care!"

"They won't decide to kill you. Carlisle would never let that happen."

"But if all the others decide to go against him…"

"Esme will side with Carlisle, no matter what. Rosalie probably will side against you, but Emmett won't. Bella will avoid violence. Edward will go with what he considers the safest option."

"Which is?"

"Well, he knows I'll protect you if he attacks, and he can't beat me in a fight."

"You'll protect me?"

"You're one of the few humans I like. That counts for something."

She smiled. It was a tired smile, but at least it was a positive emotion. The warmth emanating from her was a nice change from the violent anger and distrust.

"You need to sleep. I'll stop anyone attacking you."

"See you in the morning, then. But if my mum sees you, you _will_ die."

**This sucks…**

**Sorry for the obsessive car stuff but I love the Gallardo – such a cool car. I'm putting a picture of it on my profile if anyone's interested.**


	4. Backstory

**OK, so now you can find out the question I'm sure quite a lot of you will be asking: what the hell happened to Alice? So here it is. And you can find out more about Kira too. There's a different kind of paragraph break in this so here's a quick guide:**

**^v^v^v^v^ - change of person's backstory**

Backstories

"_You know, I think we've told this story in the wrong order," Jasper commented._

"_How so? I think it's in the right order."_

"_Well, we told it from when we met, but that's not the start of the story."_

"_Who says the start of the story has to be the first events? We've told it from the start of __**our**__ story – the rest is more backstory."_

"_You think?"_

"_Yeah. After all, without backstory the story can't start, but the beginning isn't always the start."_

Kira lay in the English grass, ten years old and completely oblivious to how life could change so quickly. She was lying so still that the animals were starting to walk past without acknowledging her presence. A blackbird landed elegantly in front of her. Idly, she wondered how it would feel to be a bird. Then it started. Like liquid fire being poured over her skin. It hurt. A lot. The fire choked her, strangling her scream before it could escape. Then the fire changed. It was now ice, freezing, so cold it hurt more than the fire. She tried to run away, but her legs felt wrong. Shorter, not designed for running. She tried to throw her arms out but instead two wings swished sideways, poised to lift her into the air.

The shock was so strong it triggered the fire again. This time it left her free enough to scream – and she screamed as loud as she could. The freezing cold cut of her scream harshly, but then she was back to herself, shivering in the aftermath of the ice, sobbing in terror. She'd run to the house, where her parents tried to find out what had happened to her. They never found out.

……………

It had taken weeks before it happened again. This time it was almost deliberate. She had seen the free-running behaviour of horses in a field and she wanted that freedom. Out of sight, she had focused on that freedom. The fire swept through her, melting her form and then the ice locked it into something new. The horse looked immature – legs a little too long, body not quite in the right proportions. But in enough of the right proportions to _run. _She leapt away from a stand still and galloped between the trees. She could almost forget the burning ice that would have to come soon. But it did come – and it hurt more. Enjoying the otherness had cost her.

But it was too good to resist. For the next nine years she would be stuck in cycles of unbearable pain tempered with the joy and freedom of the animals.

^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^

Some people are not meant to have easy lives. For these people, life can seem pretty sucky at times. Of course, if your life turns out to not be easy and also to not be ending any time soon, it gets even worse. Unfortunately for him, Jasper Whitlock-Hale was one of these people.

It hadn't started badly, but an encounter with Maria and the Vampire Wars of the South changed that. Then there was a brief respite from his unlucky life when he met Alice. She had been like a ray of sunshine – and for a while life had seemed good. But happiness is fickle like that. And it can change so quickly.

Vegetarian lifestyle is controversial, and it raised unusual reactions fro the small group of nomads who encountered the Cullens in Alaska. The inevitable fight's outcome was easy to predict. The nomads had no hope of winning, but they hid their real intentions well. Not to destroy – to punish. No one had noticed the fire in time – not noticed the missing member of the family.

It had been a bad few months. Jasper hadn't held it together. Vegetarianism was what killed her – for three months the humans weren't safe from Jasper. But the Cullens were his only family – he went back in the end. But the loss ate at him. Soon he would collapse – unless someone could repair him.

^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^

Kira had never found out why she was the one who had to endure the agony to discover the freedom of animal life. But something she found out not all that much later was that it made her a target. She'd been running as a fox once when she was twelve when she'd caught an unusual scent. Not unpleasant per say, just different – like ice and mint and fruit. Then she'd seen them in the forest ahead – pale white, with blood red eyes. She'd turned and ran away, but that was the first in a long line of encounters with vampires – which led to the death of her father.

^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^

Jasper had thought life couldn't get any worse when he'd lost Alice. Of course, that was wrong. Without her to anchor him, vegetarian life was harder than ever. The fire burned stronger, the blood smelled sweeter. He felt like he was slowly going insane. In the end, he had snapped – the reason they had left Alaska for Maine. Instead of lessening, like everyone assured him it would, the temptation was growing. Without an anchor, he was becoming lost. And it's a slippery slope to be on.

"_Are you happy now Jasper? Both the start and the beginning are told."_

"_Yes. Are we going through the entire story?"_

"_I need to keep my human memories, you said so yourself."_

"_True."_

"_So where did we get to before the backstory debacle?"_

**Kay, so it's a little short, but it only makes sense as a separate chapter. Sorry for the delay posting this, my only excuse is that I forgot… so it's not a very good excuse. **


	5. Fight

**Onwards, to crapiness!!**

**MAJORLY IMPORTANT NOTE!! DO NOT SKIP!!**

**Due to me being stupid, I have changed where this story if going halfway through. Yes, I know, I should really plan things out better. As a consequence of my stupidness, all the italicy bits have been changed. Most changed is chapter 1, but check the others for minor changes. Reading them again will make a lot of sense. sorry for making you all do this!! And also sorry for massive wait, it's because I'm stupid… again. **

**I tried to get into Jasper's character a little more in this chapter, 'cause none of us like it when a story only focuses on its OC. It's kinda hard for me though, because I'm not Texan, I'm not an ex-Confederate soldier and I'm not even a guy. So yeah, hope it doesn't fail massively.**

Fight

It was early – in fact, it was early early. Kira cursed steadily for five minutes when her alarm went off – she hated mornings. When she'd managed to get her eyes pen enough to focus, she saw the folded piece of paper on her floor.

**Went home to change and pick up a different car – Gallardo's a touch conspicuous. I'm taking you to school today, don't try to run away.**

"Crazy fool. Where am I going to run to?"

"Who are you talking to?" asked her mum, putting her head round the door.

"Myself."

"Excellent. Breakfast's nearly ready, better get dressed if you don't want to be late."

Kira showered quickly and revised history swiftly while eating breakfast. She had a test, but according to the other class it was easy. Her mum left early to get to work, and she was daydreaming a little. Because of this she didn't notice there was someone in her kitchen until she heard him chuckle.

"Holy crap, don't sneak up on me or anything!!"

Jasper laughed; pushed away from the door frame he was leaning on and sauntered over to sit at the kitchen table.

"You're the first person I've ever seen sauntering."

"Yay for me? Anyways, are you ready to go to school?"

"If I have to."

"You do have to."

"Bugger."

………………………

Outside, it was blowing a gale and the rain was sheeting down in a near-constant stream.

"Lovely weather," commented Kira, sliding into the seat of the jeep (Jasper had borrowed it from Emmett).

"Yeah, just amazing."

Kira studied his face closely for a few seconds, and then started laughing.

"How did you say that with a straight face?"

"200 years of sarcasm. It's just practice."

"200 years? Holy hell, even_ I_ couldn't be sarcastic for _that_ long."

He laughed too, starting the engine and pulling out onto the wet road. Kira fiddled with the radio, flipping through the stations until she found a song she liked. Then she leaned back and drummed the beat on the window frame next to her, grinning slightly.

"You seem awfully happy this morning."

"I have no idea why. I mean, last night a pack of vampires was busy deciding my fate and one of said vampires is now sitting next to me and withholding information about which direction that discussion took should be pretty damn annoying."

"That was a long sentence."

Kira glared with a surprising amount of force. "I'm not joking. And _you_ of all people should know that you should take advantage of my good moods while they last."

This rang all Jasper's alarm bells. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She snorted. "Why don't you tell me, _empath_?"

The brakes protested loudly as Jasper jerked the car to a stop on the side of the road.

"What did you say?" he growled.

Kira looked him dead in the eye, not flinching away from the anger she met there. "You are an empath. Don't patronise me, I can tell. So _you_ should know that my good spells are few and far between. And don't even _think_ about making me afraid, because I hate to break it to you but _you don't scare me_."

"Oh, really?"

Suddenly the air was filled with fear. Kira felt it pressing on her like walls, smothering reason and carefully planned arguments. But it felt _wrong,_ not like real fear but tainted with a slightly off timbre – it wasn't her fear. And with that knowledge, she kept the fear off. She raised her eyes again – although she'd never consciously dropped them – and forced herself to look back into Jasper's eyes. And beyond the layers of shock and anger, there was a hint of pride. She had fought against all her instincts, and he was proud that she could do it.

"Yes, really. And I'll thank you if you don't try to pull that one again, I'd rather not have any poor people walking past us keel over from a heart attack."

He started the car again, pulling out onto the main road. "I've never given anyone a heart attack,"

"Bet you _have._ Not a clinical one, perhaps, but I bet you have. You just don't know you have."

He looked at her and shook his head. "You're _weird."_

"Says the vampire," she shot back.

"True. But you _are_ strange."

She sighed. "Tell me about it. I suppose it hasn't escaped your notice that everyone here treats me like I'm wither not here or not worth speaking to."

"You could try being normal."

"I did, but it was so damn _boring_."

He looked at her again, trying to determine if she was serious.

…………………

After school – which seemed bizarrely commonplace compared to secret vampire covens – Kira went back to the jeep parked in the school car park. The Volvo was already gone, and the only Cullen left was Emmett, leaning against the jeep.

"Hey, Kira. Jasper's gone with the others, so you get to ride with me."

"Cool," she said, opening the passenger door. She carefully judged the gap between the ground and the car, grabbed the door frame, put one foot in the car, and hauled herself up the two feet to slide in with an unlikely sort of style.

"Nice car," she commented, glancing around the no-frills interior.

"Thanks. It's really good off-road."

"Really? I've never tried off-roading."

Emmett grinned, and began to explain it. Kira smiled back. She was good at finding people's interests, and it was easy to make people like her if she wanted them to.

…………………

When they pulled in the Cullen's drive, they could hear the yelling before they even stepped out of the car. To Kira, it sounded like Edward and Rosalie yelling at Jasper. No prizes for guessing what they were yelling about.

As they walked in the door, they heard the smash of a crystal vase.

"God, what is _WRONG _with you, Jasper?? How can you not _see _that she's _dangerous!?"_

"What proof do you have about that?? This is just your _prejudices_, Rosalie!! We had the _exact same issue_ with Bella!!"

Unfortunately, this set Edward off. "Don't you _DARE_ compare that _thing_ to Bella!"

Kira resisted for about half a second, and then gave up resisting and joined in the yelling.

"_Thing??_ Excuse me, but I was under the impression that _you _were the things!"

All three whipped round to stare at her.

"_What did you say?"_ hissed Rosalie, outraged.

"I think you heard. Don't you think it's a little _hypocritical_ to call me a _thing_ when you aren't anywhere _near _human?"

Rosalie growled and leapt straight for Kira. Fortunately, Jasper expected this and reacted just in time to snag her by the arm, stopping her from charging across to Kira and crushing her to death. A heavy feeling of calm and lethargy spread through the room, effectively pinning everyone to the floor. Everyone except Kira, who had of course worked out how to avoid Jasper's talent. She met his eyes and grinned once quickly. Then she gritted her teeth, melted briefly and reformed as a snow-leopard. She leapt out of the door, and darted away into the forest. He let the others up slowly, ready for whatever hell they would give him.

………………

Kira ran through the forest, shaking off the last of the spasms of pain. She scrambled up a tree and then perched on a branch. And then she waited.

About half an hour later, the silent white shape slipped through the foliage and folded onto the branch beside her.

"That was very stupid, you know."

"I'm sorry, Jasper, but I can't _stand_ being called inhuman! I'm not a _thing_!" She'd shifted back to human the second he arrived.

"I know you're not, but please don't listen to Rosalie or Edward. They're just… a little close-minded."

"You don't understand how hard it is to be called something like that."

"Don't I?" The sudden intensity in his voice made her look up. "Tell me, who exactly were you referring to when you said 'I was under the impression that you were the things,'?"

Kira leaned back against the tree trunk, and he could feel her radiating guilt.

"I don't think before I act. I didn't mean it, I just… reacted. Please don't hold that against me."

"Alright. You're truthful. Now, I think you really need to speak to Carlisle without the others finding you."

"Wow, are they that mad?"

"You underestimate how annoying you are."

………………

Kira had managed to sneak into the Cullen house after Bella and Emmett had persuaded Rosalie and Edward to leave. Carlisle was more serious than he had been the time before – Kira was proving to be more of a nuisance than he'd anticipated. The emotions flying around were getting Jasper down, so after helping Kira sneak into the house, he'd left and gone hunting. He'd been hunting more recently, just like he had done while Bella was still human. A simple precaution – if he had to spend a lot of time with humans, he hunted more. Kira still seemed to have no discernable scent – in fact, she seemed to _absorb_ the scents of other humans – but he was sticking to the mantra of 'better safe than sorry'. Also, the extra hunting had made being in school easier, although he'd never admit it. He hated being weaker than the others; having to hunt more, so he used Kira as an excuse.

Actually, he liked having Kira around. Despite the tensions she inspired in his family, she did make being around humans a lot easier. He could act as if he had as much control as his siblings. And Kira had a way of being calm in situations where most people were angry, or scared, or some other violent emotion. The only other person who'd ever had such an opposite view on situations was…

Pain ripped through him, even before he thought her name. He stopped dead in his tracks, and slowly sank to the forest floor. His body shook with dry sobs, but he managed to choke out her name through them.

"Alice…"

**I feel horrible for doing this to poor Jasper. So horrible.**


	6. Issues

_**YET ANOTHER MAJORLY IMPORTANT NOTE WHICH MUST NOT BE SKIPPED ON PAIN OF PAINFUL THINGS!!!**_

_**OK, so as has been mentioned before I am extremely stupid. And we all know by know that I changed the plot. But now, I'm having a crisis of faith. I don't know if I should keep it as this (the changed version with Kira and Jasper as FRIENDS) or if I should go back to the previous version (with eventual Kira/Jasper romance). So this is your (probably) one and only chance to influence the course of this story. I will put a poll up in my profile of awesomeness and you need to go there to vote for which path you want. If you have no account and so can't vote in a poll please leave an anonymous review with your vote but if you CAN use polls please DON'T leave your vote in a review. Voting will be closed when chapter EIGHT is posted which may take a week or a month… so get your votes in quick!!**_

**I hope I can make Jasper feel better. Bit of trivia for you – I started this chapter just after posting the first chapter for you all to read. Yes it really takes me that long to write stuff. So yeah, not that interesting is it?**

**I got the Lamborghini back for this chapter, just 'cause.**

**I got Kira and Jasper to have a bit of a deep discussion in this chapter, because I think sooner or later Kira needs to know a bit more of the background of Jasper. Also, you get to find out why Kira's blood doesn't tempt Jasper. You see, I thought of everything. It's not some random plothole after all.**

Issues

Kira was tired the next day – sorting things out with the Cullens had kept her up late. She noticed that the atmosphere in the Cullen family was even worse than it had been the day before. Edward and Rosalie were still looking murderous, Emmett and Bella seemed at a loss as to how to help, and Jasper seemed… depressed. Kira didn't know if vampires could become depressed, but that was the only thing that fit. He was even more withdrawn than usual, and there was pain only half shadowed in his eyes. Raw, blistering pain which reminded her all too clearly of how she'd felt after she'd found her father on the floor. Without his influence, the others seemed tense and more twitchy than normal – Kira wondered just how much his presence affected the atmosphere even without him realising. The tension was too much for her, so at lunch she slipped off to the library instead of joining the others in the canteen. She had no doubt that soon one of them would come to find her, but until they did, she revelled in the free time. In the library there were two seats hidden behind some very boring shelves of books which no one ever went near, and there was a radiator to lean against. Kira opened her book and read the book carefully, focussing on the words more than was necessary to distract herself from the outside world. She was good at this; it took her about five minutes to notice that someone had sat down next to her.

"Do you _have_ to sneak up on me, or do you just find it entertaining to give me heart attacks?"

Jasper half smiled, but there was no emotion behind the movement – just an automatic reaction. "I won't give you a heart attack." He then slouched back and sighed softly. Kira watched him carefully.

"This is probably none of my business," she said at last, "but are you okay?"

He lifted his eyes to stare at the ceiling while he answered. "No."

"No what?"

"No, it's not your business. And no, I'm not okay."

"You're not going to tell me why, are you?"

"Again, no. All that 'sharing makes you fell better' stuff is complete crap, anyway."

"I guess you would know. Ever considered becoming a therapist? I bet you'd be good at it."

"Not really. Being me, I'd probably end up killing one of my clients." The bitterness was plain in his voice.

"How so?"

"What do you mean? I obviously would, seeing as I have practically no self control, and it's always _me_ who slips up and makes us move on, always _me_ who has to be watched in case I lose control…"

"Life's tough sometimes."

"What?" He was incredulous, that much was plain.

"You heard me. So you find life hard. Suck it up. If I were you, I'd be grateful I could have half the stuff you have. And if you find it so damn hard to stop killing humans, then why bother? And if you hate _that_ so much, then learn to really _fight_. You'll only find something hard if you can't put in the effort to crack it."

He was glaring at her. "I do fight. I fight as much as a can. But _I can't do it_. I'm not strong enough."

Kira radiated cynicism. "Oh really? Because all the others seem to find it easy. What makes them so different from you? I think you've forgotten how it feels to be human."

He glared at her this time, but she refused to be intimidated.

"You find this hard because you _expect_ it to be hard. You think of yourself as a creature, designed purely to prey on humans. You need to think it should be easy. Think that, and you will force yourself to meet those expectations. Expect yourself to resist. _Fight it, Jasper! _I don't care that it's what you're designed for. _Make_ yourself something else!"

"I've tried!" At least this elicited a response. "Don't you understand that? I've tried so hard, but I _can't do it!"_

"You see?! This is what I'm talking about! Don't think of it like that; think 'from now on, I'm going to do it, no matter what'. You like betting, right?"

"Yeah?" He wondered where this was going.

"Very well. I am going to bet you a hundred bucks that my theory works, and that the next time an 'incident' like spilled blood, or extremely close contact with a human, you will be fine."

He glared even more forcefully. "Deal. But if anyone dies, you are responsible. And I bet you don't even have a hundred bucks."

"Oh, you'd be surprised. So, we have an accord?"

"We do."

They sat in silence for a little longer. Eventually, the bell was about to go. Jasper turned to Kira.

"How much would you mind ditching school?"

"Not much, I never listen in lessons anyway. Why?"

"I want to get out of here, and company would be good. All the emotions of my family are killing me, so you seem the obvious choice."

"Well, thanks. And I suppose it gets me out of having to work, so sure, I'll ditch with you."

…………………

They went back to Cullen house in the end – there was nothing else they could do without drawing attention to the fact that they weren't in school. Of course, they didn't want to encounter any of the others – especially if whoever hey encountered was one of the 'anti-Kira' people – and so Jasper got the keys to the Lamborghini. Kira didn't insist on driving this time, and the car flew even faster a he drove away from town, along roads that led to the coast.

Kira spent a lot of her time at the beach, and she led the way along the cliff tops – she knew the hidden tracks to the secluded, less well known areas of the shore. She sat down of on of the large, salt-encrusted rocks and flicked stones at the surf that pooled near their feet.

"Seriously though," she said, still staring at the swirling ocean. "You have to tell me what's wrong."

"Do I have to? Or do you just want me to?"

"Maybe both."

"I… can't. I can't talk about it."

Scepticism hit him like a blow.

"You don't believe me." It wasn't a question. "I think you should, though. How would you feel if someone made you talk all about your father dying?"

Anger swiftly replaced the scepticism. "_Don't_ talk about that."

"You see?"

"Alright, fine. But at least tell me one thing. Why don't you find it hard to be around me?"

"What?"

"For you, being around humans is hard. Why can you be so relaxed around me?"

Jasper had actually given this matter quite a lot of thought, but only when Edward wasn't around. For some reason, he didn't want this one getting out.

"Well, I have a _theory, _but it takes some explaining. You need to be patient."

"I can be very patient."

"Right. So, in _our_ world, human blood smells incredibly… tempting."

"Yikes."

"Yeah, yikes is quite a good way to put it. This is why we – me especially – find it hard to be around people. It's the temptation of the blood. And for some people, one _specific_ human's blood is especially sweet-smelling. We call these people singers – their blood sings for one vampire and one vampire only." He paused. "Bella was Edward's singer. I have no idea how he had the control to not kill her. I hate to think what would happen if I met my singer."

"One small question."

"Shoot."

"What does this have to do with you not feeling the need to kill me?"

"I'm getting to that bit. So, the singer is the most potent blood for one of our kind. But_ I_ think that there is a flip side to it."

Kira grasped the idea at this point. "If the singer is the most tempting… then there is someone who isn't tempting at all?"

"You've got it. To me, you have literally no scent – if fact, you _absorb_ the scents of others. You're my anti-singer."

"Well, at least that makes me vaguely useful."

"_I _appreciate it."

"Glad to be of service?"

He smiled a little. Kira was glad she'd managed to cheer him up a little. She didn't like seeing him down. Especially if he bled the downness into the surrounding atmosphere. She flicked another pebble at the ocean, and tried to sort out the tangle of thoughts Jasper's information had created.

"If it's so hard to be around humans…" she started.

"Yeah?"

"Why d you do it? I can understand why you don't eat humans, that bit's easy to understand, but I don't see why you spend all your time presumably suffering, when you could be free."

Jasper often asked himself the same question. "It's hard to understand if you aren't one of us, but I'll try to explain. You see, most vampires – by which I mean _traditional_ vampires, if you catch my drift – are more like animals than humans – the desire for blood wipes away their humanity. By refraining from drinking human blood, we try to remain as human as possible. And part of that is having human-esque lives. But I guess the motivation behind it's not so clear if you don't really know how it feels."

"I think I get it… a bit. But you're right – I have no idea how it feels. Can you… can you show me? How it feels, I mean."

"I can try…" Jasper didn't think this was a very good idea, but there was no rational reason why he felt like that.

He focused on the thirst. It was nearly non-existent thanks to Kira's anti-singer affect, so he flicked back through the memories. The last time he had slipped up. Someone had brushed too close to him in an alleyway. He hadn't hunted in a long time. The warmth, the pulsing blood, it was too much…

Dragging himself away from those thoughts, he carefully projected the thirst towards Kira. He had no idea how vampire thirst would affect a person. He was unprepared for what came next.

Kira curled her hands around her throat, falling to her knees. She snarled, not sounding even vaguely human. Her whole body seemed to flicker, almost shivering into another form but just managing to hold into humanity.

"God's sake, Jasper, _stop!_" She gasped, forcing the words out. He cancelled out the waves of thirst with soothing calm. Kira rolled onto her back on the damp sand and stared at the sky, breathing deeply. After a few minutes she seemed recovered enough to speak.

"Holy… crap. I feel so sorry for you. That was horrible."

"I know."

**I couldn't really end this chapter very well, but never mind. I hope you all like. Don't forget: **_**vote!!**_


	7. Verdict

**Hah, me and my friends at riding spent ages discussing (arguing) the hotness of Jackson Rathbone against Rob Pattinson. Two of them think Rob's hotter. Me and one other girl think Jackson wins hands down. And then someone overheard us, but they just think it's funny to hear a gang of teenage girls talking about boys. And that was random, no?**

Verdict

They were still sitting on the beach, breathing in the salt smell and both trying to recover some composure from the thirst. Kira was regretting ever having asked, and Jasper wasn't exactly enjoying it. The silence was complete, only broken by the sigh of the waves. Then Jasper's phone rang, and they both flinched at the sudden noise.

"_Jasper, it's Carlisle. Is Kira with you?"_

"Yeah, she is. Why?"

"_I've reached a conclusion about what to do about her."_

Kira had slid closer to hear Carlisle's side of the conversation, and now she took the phone from Jasper.

"Care to tell me?"

"_I'd like to do this face to face, if you don't mind."_

"OK, fine. But now, not later."

"_Of course. See you soon."_

Kira dropped the phone and tried to keep breathing steadily. Jasper wasn't fooled, but then, he wouldn't be.

"You alright?"

She sighed. "I should be, I guess. I want to get this all cleared up, and I know that Carlisle will pick the right option, but…"

"You're worrying."

"I can't help it."

He sent her calm. She didn't fight it off. She got up and headed for the cliff path.

"Go on then. Show me what the Lamborghini can do."

………………………

Kira slunk into the Cullen house, trying to avoid meeting any vampires.

"They're not here," pointed out Jasper, slightly amused.

"I know that."

"You're such a liar. You're going to hell for sure."

"Well, at least I'll keep you company down there." She grinned sharply, appreciating his jokes to lighten the atmosphere.

"Ooh, low blow. I may need to make you behave just to prevent that."

"Good luck with that. You want me to win even more money than I'm going to right now?"

He rolled his eyes. She smiled. Although even Jasper couldn't make her feel _positive_ right now, trying was nice.

They reached Carlisle's office and breezed in; Kira felt she deserved not having to wait. He was prepared for then – of course he'd heard them coming – and set down the book he'd been reading.

"I guess you're here for the verdict?"

"You guess right."

Carlisle smiled. "Don't look so scared. Hasn't Jasper told you I'd never allow you to get hurt?"

"He told me. I ignore him a lot."

"We all do."

"Hey!"

Carlisle smiled again. The relaxed atmosphere was starting to calm Kira, which was the plan. "The verdict?" he reminded her.

"Yes. Verdict. Jasper torture can come later."

Jasper's sarcastic mumble of, "Oh joy," could be hear faintly by both of them, but they had no chance to react.

The door flew open, crashing against the wall hard enough to raise a cloud of plaster dust. The calm feeling in the room was immediately shattered. Kira flinched away from the noise. Rosalie stood in the doorway, her beautiful face contorted with fury.

"Carlisle! This is _wrong!_ Can't you see what she's done?!"

Despite the musical quality of her voice, it still managed to be a screech.

"What has she done, Rosalie?" Credit to him, Carlisle was trying to keep the peace.

"She's manipulating us! All of us! She's got you _all _on her side! All of you just _accept_ what she says! What _proof_ do you have that that's true? _None!_ You just _believe_ her! For _no reason!_"

The silence that followed rang with the truth behind Rosalie's words. Because, of course, there _was_ no proof that Kira wasn't dangerous. Everyone seemed to think about this for a few long seconds, and then Carlisle spoke.

"Thank you for your contribution, Rosalie, but I think I will stick to my original decision."

The words were such a contrast to Rosalie's shriek that Kira felt like laughing. She felt Jasper shaking slightly next to her, and caught his eye. He was thinking the same thing. Carlisle continued calmly. "Kira, I decided – as you probably guessed – that you are not a threat to this family. We'll keep our dealings separate from yours. But I think I should warn you that if you prove to be a threat we _will_ intervene."

"You have a deal."

"Then you're free to go. Jasper, drive her home."

"Why am I suddenly the taxi service?"

"Because I need to talk to everyone else. Go on, and stop complaining."

…………………

In the car – not the Lamborghini, it was too conspicuous, they took Emmett's jeep – Kira started laughing.

"Did you see Rosalie's face after Carlisle replied like that? I very nearly lost it then."

Jasper grinned back. "I'm glad you didn't. She'd have killed you."

There was a pause, and then she spoke again. "You know, I kind of feel sorry for Rosalie."

That caught him by surprise. "Seriously? I would have thought you'd hate her."

Kira chewed her lip, looking for the right way to say it. "I can see why she feels this way. She didn't want this life. She's happy, but she wishes she could have had that normal life."

Jasper stared at her for a few seconds in astonishment. "How do you know?"

She shrugged. "Same way I know that Carlisle spends so much time at the hospital because he is trying to make up for the thousands killed by his kind, and that Edward is starting to question his first judgement of me but is too stubborn to say." **(A/N I'm not the world's greatest Edward fan, although I'm probably now one of the deadest Twilight fans)**

Jasper blinked. "How do you know all that? Are you secretly Edward in disguise?"

She smiled. "No. It's easy to see this kind of stuff. I just watch people, and it's all there. Sometimes it's hidden, sometimes I have to watch for a while, but reading people… it's not hard."

"You can do this with anyone?"

"Yep. I didn't use you as an example because that might freak you out."

"Try now. I need concrete proof."

She ran her fingers through her hair, and looked at him carefully for a few seconds. "You… you are hurting. You lost someone and it still hurts you. You find this way of living difficult, and you think you're weak because of that –"

"Alright, enough," he interrupted.

"Sorry."

"I asked, it's not you fault. But you can't know all that from watching people. I spend most of my time watching people, and I can't pick up that much. Maybe it's a talent you have."

"Maybe."

They sat in silence. Then Jasper asked the question he'd been thinking of for a while. "What will you do, now you're free from my family?"

"Chill out. Maybe paint my room a new colour. Run around as an animal. The usual."

He smiled. "If you want someone to hang out with, I have no other friends."

"I may take you up on that."

He hesitated slightly, and then brushed his hand across hers swiftly. He stood up and headed for the door. Kira stared down at her hands, and wondered about his offer. She smiled to herself.

**Hehe this was tough to write but I like the ending. Not so much the beginning. Review and VOTE!!! Voting closes in one chapter's time!**


	8. NOTE ABOUT POLL!

**OK, no one panic if you haven't got your vote in yet. This is a note to anyone who wants their input in this story. **

**I have found out that my poll (and I think most polls, but definitely my one) is not working. At all. So, I have re-thought my amazing plan. Everyone leave your vote for romance vs. friendship in a review and I will count the votes when I put up chapter **_**9 **_**not 8 to make up for the poll screwing up. **

**Chapter 8 will be up soonish.**


	9. Incident'

**Ok, so here is Chapter 8. Please all remember to vote in your one and only chance. So far romance is winning by 3 votes to nothing. Or possibly 4 votes – I found one on the poll but I don't know whose vote it was. Point is, romance is winning. This is your last chance to vote, as all voting closes when Chapter 9 goes up. I hope you all remember Kira and Jasper's little bet? It will come up in here, so if you don't, skip back to chapter six.**

**I think this chapter doesn't flow to well, which actually sucks 'cause this is the one chapter which I knew for certain what I wanted to write. **

'Incident'

After the verdict, Kira's life had got back to some kind of normality. Not totally normality – spending time as an animal ruined any chances of _that_ – but a lot nicer than it had been while the Cullen family had been treating her as a threat. Jasper had – as he'd said he would – stayed as a friend. She wondered if he knew how much she appreciated it. She wasn't the total loner of the school anymore. In fact, many girls were envious of the amount of time she got to spend with one of the hottest single guys in the school. But of course a family of vampires couldn't escape their natures for ever. The months ticked by, like a timer counting down.

It was cold, and the snow was a good two inches thick on the ground. Human slithered around in an ungainly fashion. Kira was considerably more graceful then them, but she still was having trouble. Instead of walking, she sort of skated, sliding her feet along the ground like an ice-skater. Despite this she was still having trouble staying upright and used Jasper, with his super-human vampire balance, to hang on to. Manoeuvring cars in and out of the lot was getting dicey, but it couldn't get much worse… could it?

The car wasn't going very fast. In this weather, it would be suicidal. The pedestrian crossing the exit of the lot wasn't travelling quickly either. But all it took was one patch of ice to cause trouble.

The timer had run out.

The brakes didn't screech much, the snow muffled the noise. But the hissing sound of tyres on ice drew attention just a split second too late for it to make any difference. There was a crash and then a low thump. And time stood still.

The car had skidded into the low wall that surrounded the parking lot, and the radiator grill had snapped, leaving a sharp jagged edge like a waiting knife blade. The car had carried on, screeching towards the lone pedestrian. The grill slashed in, and the snow turned red.

……………

The scent of raw, exposed blood crossed the lot in seconds and hit the family of vampires like a blow. All of them tensed, and all eyes flicked to Jasper's face. Kira froze very still, knowing that any moves would be the worst possible move right now. The tension filled the air like a bitter taste.

Jasper's teeth locked together. Every cell in him longed to leap across the lot and take that blood. It was _his_ and no one could take it. He was a predator. A hunter.

_A monster._ The thought came from nowhere. And with at least as much force as the blood-song and echo from the past hit him like a brick wall. Not like running into a wall, he wasn't moving, but like having a wall hit him in the face. Maybe a freight train would have been a better comparison.

_It should not be this hard!!_

He locked his muscles and forced himself to fight the predators' instinct to keep breathing. And the longing, the overpowering _compulsion_ of the blood snapped and slid slowly from him. The thirst burned on, but the call was gone.

Less than a second had passed. The others were still deciding to grab him, hold him back. None of them expected what would happen next.

He turned and was gone in a second. They stared after him in shock. He couldn't just walk away from blood like that…

"Go." Kira recovered quicker than they expected. "I'll cover for you. Go on. Make sure he's OK."

They turned and disappeared. Kira watched for a second more, and then turned to help the woman sprawled bleeding on the snow. Everyone had formed a crown, panicking and flapping around. She sighed, and shoved her way through everyone until she could reach the woman. Kira knew quite a lot of first aid, and so pulled off her jacket and knelt down to press it firmly against the gash in the woman's side. With one hand Kira pulled out her mobile **(in America – cell phone)** and handed it to the nearest person.

"Call 911," she ordered. She heard the sounds of the call being made, heard the people babbling around her, but she could focus on only one thing. The horrified look on Jasper's face before he managed to fight off the impulse. She smiled. He was stronger than he thought.

………………

The wailing of the ambulance cut though Kira's musings. The flow of blood had slowed, and she moved back to let the paramedics through.

"You did this?" one of them asked her.

"Yeah. She was losing a lot of blood."

"Did you see what happened?"

Kira nodded. "She got slashed open by the car radiator grill."

The paramedic thought about this. "Would you mind coming with us? The doctor who treats her might want to ask you about what happened."

"Sure."

Kira sat in the front of the ambulance with the driver, who chatted pleasantly while the paramedics were getting the woman into the back, and then they went to the hospital. Kira spent the drive thinking carefully. Jasper owed her money.

……………………

**(Quick A/N: I don't know if in real life she'd be taken to the hospital, and I don't care! This is fanfiction, not the real world XD)**

Kira was told to wait in the office of the doctor looking after the woman who had been hit. It was actually pretty funny that of all the doctors, she would have to wait for Dr Cullen. She'd laughed a little at that, and then put her feet up on his desk and listened to her mp3 to pass the time. She made sure she kept an eye on the door – she was tired of having vampires sneak up on her. Sure enough, Carlisle walked in not long after she had arrived. He looked mildly surprised to see her there.

"Hey," she said, grinning. "Don't you just love coincidences?"

"What are you doing here?"

"You've got a woman who was cut open when she was hit by a car. I was the one who saw what happened and gave emergency first aid."

His eyes widened slightly. "They were all there with you? And they were all OK?"

She knew who he meant by 'they' and she also knew exactly who he was asking about, even if he was trying not to single him out.

"Jasper was fine. I think you need to go talk to him, and I'd like to be there too. He owes me a hundred bucks."

"You want to turn up in a house of vampires covered in someone else's blood?"

This was a good point – Kira's clothes were soaked red from kneeling next to a bleeding woman. Kira thought about this.

"How about I borrow your car to go home and change, then you give me a lift to your place so I can claim my winnings from Jasper?"

He tossed the car keys to her. "Are you _sure_ nothing happened to him?"

"Oh, no. You are not getting the story out of me. This is something you have to ask Jasper about."

………………

Jasper had known that Kira was in the car with Carlisle **(Now isn't that a funny sentence? Car with Carlisle…) **well before the others, because he could feel a powerful combination of pride and happiness that was very different to the way immortals felt anything. There was also a tiny hint of smugness, but it was only a very little hint. She was happier that he was happy than she was about the fact she had won the bet. Once she was inside the house, she watched the raging debate with amused eyes.

"Jasper, you still haven't explained. We're all happy about this, but _how_ are you OK?"

"Wait, you don't know either?" That was Carlisle. Jasper hadn't been paying enough attention to know who had repeated the question again. Kira pushed off the wall she'd been leaning against as the debate quietened a little.

"Not to butt in, but I have something to tell Jasper. Can I have my hundred dollars first, please?"

He glared without much force and handed it over only a little grudgingly. He was as glad as the others that he hadn't attacked anyone.

"Now, do you want to the best bit about this?"

Jasper had a feeling that this would not be good. "Do I dare ask?"

She grinned even more. "Remember all that stuff I said about expectations and setting yourself a higher bar? It was total crap."

"What?" He was very nearly speechless.

"Yep. Made it all up on the spot."

He shook his head as he tried to make sense if it. "But if you made it all up… how did it work?"

"Witness the all-powerful placebo effect, my friend. _Or,_ alternatively, there is the option that all you need was someone to give you something to use to pull yourself up on, and it turns out that actually you are much stronger than you thought and you can be a vegetarian just as well as any of the others. Your choice of scenario."

"Is any of _that_ true?"

Her crazy smile softened a little. "The second scenario is. Congratulations."

The babble of vampiric voices which had been quiet through the little exchange began again. Kira waved at them all and left. She was happy for Jasper. Happy he'd found his place in his family at last.

**Last chance for voting! And reviews are welcomed even if they're not to do with voting… hint hint.**


	10. Aware

**Okay, so voting is officially **_**closed!**_** Thanks for the input everyone who voted, I really needed a shove to get me out of that hole. Romance won nearly unanimously, so this story is now officially Jasper/OC. Italicy bits will be changed back ASAP. Unless I forget. Sorry to anyone who wanted friendship, but I have to go with the majority!**

**EVERYONE GO READ THE PREFACE IN CHAPTER 1 AGAIN 'CAUSE I MADE IT BETTERER. **

**This chapter is more about Jasper and Kira than much plot, but it does clear up the issue of Kira not knowing Jasper's story. Plus I tried to expand Jasper's character a little. Some of this is not it the books, but none of it is actually contradictory, just a little artistic licence. But then the end went all kinda angry… But in some ways I think that works better.**

Aware

The weeks and months ticked by. The Cullens relaxed more and more around Kira, and mainly because of Jasper. His control, now he had found the way, was massively improved. Even if she wasn't _close_ to the Cullens, they all tolerated Kira. But the only one who it could be that she really got on with was Jasper.

She didn't know exactly _why_ they got on so well. Maybe it was because both of them were slightly outcast from their groups. Maybe because they were both scarred by loss. But they seemed to understand each other surprisingly well. Jasper had always kept his distance from humans, with reason, but he felt Kira easier to be around than some of his family. Her constant slightly crazy but cheerful atmosphere was definitely a nice climate to be in. The others knew all about his power, of course, but they didn't really understand it. Kira had a similar kind of insight, with her frankly unnerving talent for reading people. The others knew about what he could do, but how he did it was something they didn't really understand.

It wasn't straightforward like Edward's mind reading, not like just experiencing the emotions yourself. He was glad of that, actually, because if he had to feel every single emotion he'd probably have a severe breakdown. He couldn't explain it all that well, but when Kira brought it up, back down on the beach again, he tried to think how to say it.

"How does that emotion-reading thing work, anyway?"

"It's… complicated."

She snorted at that. "You know, 'it's complicated' is the most used excuse when people are either hiding something or don't know the answer."

"It's also what people say when it's too complicated for someone to understand, especially when the person who it is being explained to is less intelligent than the person doing the explaining, which is the situation now. Something this complicated is too complicated for an uncomplicated person to understand."

"Learn a new word for complicated. Besides, that oh-so-subtle slur on my intelligence is merely a distraction. Explain it to me, because if it is so complicated to explain to people _regardless of comparative intelligences, _thank you, then it is just proof of the explainer's intelligence if they can explain it and just proof of their _lack_ of intelligence if they refuse to even try."

"You know, it's very childish to try to out-long-sentence me."

She laughed. "You started it."

He smiled at that. "Alright, I'll try to explain. But don't blame me if you fail to keep up with my superior intelligence."

"Don't blame _me_ if I deck you for being a jerk."

He ignored that comment, and tried to think more about his talent. It was so natural for him; it was hard to even grasp how it worked.

"It's sort of like watching a light show behind someone. All their emotions, they're like colour staining the air around them. It seems so obvious to me I wonder how no one else can see it."

"I know how that last bit feels. This reading people thing, it seems so obvious sometimes, I think people should have some things written on their T-shirts."

He was intrigued in spite of himself. "Like what?"

"Mr Acton, the art teacher. He needs a shirt saying 'Insecure so I bully people'. I don't know how other people can't get that."

He thought this one over. Now she mentioned it, it was a little obvious.

"So where do these freaky extra talents come from anyway?"

"Do you ever let up with the questions?"

"Nope. I am The Eternal Questioner." You could hear the capital letters.

"Fine then. Well, the theory is that your strongest trait as a human is intensified when you change into a vampire. For example, Emmett's strength was his strongest trait as a human. Now he is strongest of everyone in our family."

She mulled this one over for a little while. "How strong _are_ vampires?"

He picked up a pebble from the beach and held it out for her to look at. She picked it up; turning it around a bit until she was satisfied that it was a genuine pebble. She dropped it back into his palm. He curled his fingers around it gently, squeezing softly. A quiet crunching noise like a very far off earthquake sounded. He opened his fingers again and tipped a shower of gravel into her hand.

"Wow. That was scary in a quite awesome way."

He reached out to scrape up the gravel again, and despite the weak, clouded light, Kira noticed something. She caught his wrist, and he stopped moving instinctively. She pushed his sleeve back a little further, exposing some of the more prominent scars that decorated the skin there.

"What's that?"

He tugged the sleeve back, but Kira had spotted the bizarre patterning across his skin.

"Don't try to hide from me. Tell me what it is."

He ignored her.

"You know I'll find it out eventually. You're just postponing the unavoidable."

His head snapped up and he glared at her. "Take the hint: I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh my god it speaks. Come _on_, Jasper, you _know_ you want to tell me."

"No, I know I really, really don't want to."

She shoved his sleeve back up and traced around one of the light crescent marks. "What could make a scar like that?" she muttered to herself, tapping one finger gently against her teeth. She removed her hand from his arm, which he was glad about – despite her clean absence of scent removing nearly all temptation, the feeling of blood pulsing under her fragile skin was still like a call to the animal inside him. Then her tapping stopped and he felt the blow of horror and fear that came with an undercurrent of knowledge. She'd worked it out.

She curled her fingers to fit her teeth, and then laid the still-curled fingers over the marks on Jasper's skin. They were very nearly a good fit.

"Why? _How?_ What _happened_ to you?" The questions were a shocked gasp.

His teeth ground together hard as all the memories surfaced. "I went through hell. Literally."

…………………

**(Much as I love Jasper's story, there are limits to what I'm willing to type out. Besides, copying pages from Eclipse is too much like blatant plagiarism.)**

He told her the whole story. Although Bella had thought, when she'd first heard it, that he hadn't edited to avoid frightening her, he had in fact edited quite a lot. With Kira, he told it all. Not just the facts-and-figures version he told Bella, but the whole story. The intense fury of the battles, the stinging of a thousand bites all over, the feeling of watching your few almost-friends being torn limb from limb by other newborns. He didn't know why he told her the 'horror story' version. Part of the reason was that he wanted someone to understand. By the end, she was shivering from more than the cold Atlantic wind. He wasn't worried about her reaction – she was tough, she would cope – but more worried that she would pity him. Even if she hid I, he would feel her pity. It was sickening how everyone felt so _apologetic. _'Oh, we're so _sorry_ you had to live through one of the bleakest periods in vampiric history. To make it up, have some totally fake concern and understanding, because we all want you to _think_ we know how you feel, even if we can have _no idea at all._'

"You're making me angry," Kira told him, sounding surprisingly calm.

"Sorry." The bitterness in his tone contradicted the word.

"What are you apologising for? First off, you can't change what you can do and _I'm_ sure as hell not going to be the one to tell you how to use it; and secondly, you went through some pretty horrific stuff, you're entitled to some strong emotion."

He picked up another pebble and hurled it full-force toward the ocean. It made a pretty impressive splash. Kira leapt to her feet suddenly, and paced back and forward.

"What are you doing?" he asked, latching onto the distraction from the one part of his story he hadn't shared – meeting… her… and losing her.

"You may not notice it, but it is _freezing_ out here. I'm trying to avoid dying of hypothermia."

"Why don't you leave?"

"Two reasons. First, Mum is crazy obsessive about cleaning and she is slightly on the rampage due to mud everywhere which had nothing at all to do with me, I swear. Second, _you_ have the car keys and I am not walking all the way home."

"How do you always have such good answers when you're lying?"

"How do you know I'm lying?"

"Your emotions gave you away."

She thought about this for a few seconds. "Damn."

He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down onto the rocks beside him, to stop her pacing. "So why are you still here, _really_? The _real_ answer this time."

She stared down at the pale sand, and he could feel that she was trying to evade him. "It's nothing really. Forget about it."

He waited, and eventually his patience paid off. "OK. The reason I'm still here."

"Go on."

"I'm… worried about you. All your family seem… maybe not happy, but content at least. But you seem to be suffering. You know how I can read people. I can't see why, but you're really struggling."

"That's not why you're still here."

"I feel like I should try to help you. But I don't know what's wrong. I feel like you need someone."

"I don't need anyone." Anger spiked through him, strong and overpowering.

"Now who's lying?"

"I'm serious."

"Sure you are. Just keep telling yourself that."

He knew that he was about to do something very stupid, and he would probably regret it later. But all he wanted now was for her to leave him alone.

"If you think I need someone, you are mistaken, Kira. I don't need anyone, especially not you. _I want you to leave_." His voice was laden with acid.

Kira's eyes blazed with dark fire. "Fine then. I'm not going to solve your problems for you."

She leapt up and melted into a snow leopard, leaping away across the beach. Jasper waited until she had gone before he let himself feel that little bit guilty.

**Ah, I'm mean to them… Review please!**


	11. Trouble

**I have good news to anyone who likes this story (which might be quite a lot of you, seeing as this is the 10****th**** chapter ;) ). I spent 10 notebook pages and about two hours planning out the **_**entire**_** plot of Love and War from here to the end. So… I know what's going to happen, and you don't! Expect some pretty big plot twists ;). **

**I have a question for you all: I was re-reading some of the earlier chapters, and I realised that there are some things which aren't really very well explained. They all seem very obvious to me, but maybe not to you guys. Stuff like when this is set, and why Jasper isn't more reluctant to let the vampire secret to get out. So, if you guys would like a short not-chapter explaining some of the smaller details, tell me in a review (also **_**which**_** details you want explained) and I will try to sort that out for you. THIS IS YOUR (not necessarily one-and-only since I may do another kind of Q&A later) CHANCE TO BUG ME WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU WANT ANSWERED!!**

**Oh yeah, you know the whole friendship vs. romance voting thing? I forgot to mention that romance will be developed very **_**very **_**slowly. Don't expect any sudden Mary-Sue oh-look-I-can-just-forget-my-soulmate stuff. I will make this as real and un-Mary-Sue as possible. You know, within reason seeing as we're dealing with a vampire and a shape-shifter-freak here. **

**I think this chapter **_**really**_** sucks, so please leave a review, because I'm having total faith crisis again… sigh. That was also the reason for the totally ridiculous wait for this chapter – sorry for not updating. **

Trouble

Kira avoided Jasper for most of the next week. That said, Jasper wasn't exactly trying to interact with her. Whenever he got within ten feet of her the anger was strong enough to almost taste, like burned metal. Where before she was like a calm oasis in the chaos of the school, now she was ten times worse than anyone else to be around. She gave him a headache, and it was only after he caught her feeling a little smug that he realised she was deliberately trying to feel strong, violent emotions. But that changed at the end of the week, and when it did Jasper wondered how he'd ever missed it in the first place.

It seemed quite sudden until he looked back over that past week. One day, instead of black-bitter anger, all he could feel from Kira was pain and grief, so strong it threatened to crush him into the ground. In fact, when it hit him – so unexpected – he gasped aloud. She'd glanced at him with dead eyes. And that was when he'd made the connection. It _had_ been there. Behind the layers of ashy blue, there _had_ been hints of this crushing grief, but he hadn't focused on it enough to notice. But it was the _force _that surprised him the most. That, and the fact that he was surprised. Vampires are not used to being surprised, period. But Kira had surprised him, and he wanted to know why. So he snuck out. Edward was out hunting with Bella and Rosalie, and everyone else was doing something, so it wasn't hard to just casually leave the house and then run like hell to Kira's house. By the time he _could_ leave – after Edward had gone – it was dark. Despite the freezing temperature, Kira had her window open for some reason. It was easy for Jasper to jump onto the windowsill and balance there; looking in to see what had surprised him.

……………

Kira was sitting, outwardly calm and collected, on her bed. The pain was strong, and there was a similar feeling from downstairs. Then she opened her eyes and looked directly at Jasper.

"I thought you might do this."

He leapt, silent as a lion, into the room. "Why?"

"Well, I guess you know how awful I'm feeling, and presumably you're here to find out why. Am I right?"

"Of course you're right, you're the freaky reader."

She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"Seriously, Kira. What's wrong? You're _burning._"

Tears glittered at the corners of her eyes. "Today is the day he died. Every year, and I can't escape from it."

Her pain flared, and reminded him of his own. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold it inside – neither of them could take any more right now.

"I'm being childish, aren't I?"

"About what?" He didn't need to be an empath to tell she was trying to change the subject.

"Life. The universe. Sulking at you."

"No. You were in fact being the queen of subtle."

She rolled her eyes. "And you have never made a sarcastic comment in all your one hundred and sixty six years." **(This is Jasper's age in 2009. I calculated it. Obsessive? Who, me?)**

"Alright, alright. Be nice. Look, I didn't mean any of that stuff I said. I just didn't want you to get too close to… the truth."

She watched him for a few seconds, trying to read him. "Will you tell me? Only if you want to."

He was so close to saying no. The words were on his tongue. He was so close to avoiding more pain than he thought he could handle. And yet, something stopped him.

"I think I will tell you. Maybe you're right. I do need someone to talk to."

She smiled a little more, and it was less fake. "Something tells me I'm not going to get to stay in my nice warm house for this story."

"Damn right. You want me to carry you out the window?"

"Nah, got it covered." She shifted into a sinuous grey cat and leapt easily from the window. Obviously the idea that cats always land on their feet stretched to shape shifters too. Jasper leapt after her, following her noiselessly into the forest.

………………

After half an hour's walking, Kira decided that there was only so much procrastination she would tolerate, and she stopped walking directly in front of Jasper. Due to super vampire reflexes he didn't walk into her, but it was close. She folded neatly down onto the ground, and squared her eyes with his.

"Alright, enough avoiding this conversation. Spill."

Jasper paced around her several times before sitting down opposite her and replying. "This part of my story takes place after I left Maria. I was in Philadelphia, and I had to go into a diner – it was raining and I didn't want to draw attention to myself. And there she was… waiting for me.

Her name, she told me, was Alice. She explained to me how she knew I would be there. She could see visions, pictures, of the future. She'd seen me coming ever since she became a vampire. It was inevitable, the two of us. Together we went to live with the Cullens. I told you before about how feeding on humans was depressing me. With Alice there, I had something to really try for. Even if 'vegetarianism' was hard for me, I had a reason to strive for the kind of control they all had."

He stopped for a second. He as expecting the soul-shredding pain that normally accompanied these memories, but there was a strange sense of calm. Damn it, Kira was right _again_ – talking helped.

"What happened to her?" Kira sounded so hesitant – she was afraid of angering the beast.

"She died. She was killed."

"Can you kill vampires?" Her curiosity outweighed her fear.

"Yes. There was another coven – three vampires – who had heard of the concept of vegetarianism and decided that it was like a plague which needed to be purged from out world. They were relatively good at fighting… none of us noticed until it was too late…" He trailed off, choked by the memories. Kira didn't need to be exceptional at reading people to see that his heart was in pieces. His fingers dug into the earth, tearing the ground up. She hesitated for a second, battling the self-preservation instinct that told her to keep her distance, before uncoiling from the ground and crossing to where Jasper sat. She sank back onto the ground and pushed through her screaming instinct to reach out and touch his shoulder gently. He flinched a little at the contact – either that or from her own reaction, fighting against the urge to leap away from him. She could feel that he was tense under her fingers. Echoes of every warning about vampires flickered through her mind – the sudden lapses in control, the unpredictability. She made herself breathe, and tasted the strange essence the vampires carried with them. Inside, her thoughts ran roughly along the line of: _Don't be such a coward; he is __**not**__ going to hurt you._ She shifted slightly, and wrapped her arms around the frozen man crouched on the forest floor.

The sudden warmth that came from having someone's arms around him was startling for Jasper. He went rigid, locking himself in place until he could ensure his control – it was a habit he had built after being so weak for so long. But the clean absence of human scent kept the animal under control, and he relaxed. He could feel every facet of Kira's emotions. She was scared, repulsed, sympathetic, sad… a swirling cloud of colour and feeling. He knew – just from common sense, really – that she was scared of what his reaction would be, and repulsed purely by the vampiristic side to him. He focused on calm, and felt Kira respond, relaxing against him.

"She'd be proud of you, you know."

"What?" He hadn't been expecting that.

"You struggle so much, but you keep going, keep trying to stay 'vegetarian'. She'd be proud you're still trying."

He smiled a little at that. Yes, Alice would have been proud.

……………

They were still sat there an hour later, when the event that would shake up their world happened. All it was, was the wind changing direction. Then the scent swept over thm both.

"What is that? It smells different to everything else?"

Jasper's jaw locked tight, nostrils flaring. He spat out the single word like it tasted bad, as bad as the smell was to him.

"Werewolves."

**Dun dun dunnnnnn!! Please don't hate me, wolf-lovers, it's all in the plan!**


	12. Computer death

**OK, so this is an emergency note which is probably filled with mistakes, seeing as I'm writing it in the Documents Manager here on and so have no spell-check. The reason for this note is as follows:**

**Due to an unexpected (for me, at least - my dad knew all about it) computer strip-out and refit (type thing, I have no idea what is actually happening), I have no regular access to a computer containing story documents, and so will not be updating until I can have my baby the laptop back. So no updates for a while, but I will try to get an update to you as soon as possible. I'm really sorry!**


	13. Pack

**Yes!! I have my baby the laptop back! It only has 3 programs loaded on it, but one is Word so I don't care!!**

**OK, so here we go. First off though – some timescaling which is needed and I'm putting separately because I think if I try to write it out I will end up copying out of Breaking Dawn.**

_**So, essentially, Jake came back for the wedding like in BD, and like in BD freaked out when Bella came back 'ill' from her honeymoon. In MY version, Bella 'died' from her 'disease' (not to mention an overuse of 'inverted commas') and Jake broke off from the pack to hunt down the Cullens with Leah, Embry and (pre-imprint) Paul. We pick up the action a little later.**_

Pack

There was snow on the ground in Alaska as the four huge wolves loped along the ground, following a burning-sweet scent trail. Despite their huge size, they were near-silent across the snow. Well, outwardly silent. Inwardly, there was a lot more going on.

_Remind me again why I am here?_

_Leah, you __**know**__ why you're here. The Cullens broke the treaty by changing… her, and then broke it __**again**__ because one of them killed a human up here in Alaska. _

_Yeah but why are we __**here?**__ Why aren't we wherever the Cullens are __**now?**_

The group of wolves all knew the answer to that question. The Cullens were being too elusive. They had no idea where the vampire coven had fled to after the human was killed – the wolves were too far behind. Even the scent-trail they were following was faint with age.

_We're working it out. They have to be somewhere in the north, because of the weather. And this trail goes straight east. We'll find them._

Another 'voice' faded in to join Leah, Jacob and Paul who'd been staying quiet. It was Embry.

_We'd better find them quick, guys – and girl. Look at this:_

He replayed the newspaper article he'd just seen while he was getting food. The disappearance nearby. It carried all the hallmarks they recognised from a vampire attack.

_You think it was them? _Embry asked.

_They were here, weren't they? And they left pretty sharpish. I recon someone got a little hungry. This has the same look as that 'mass murderer' attack we found last month. _

_Yeah, but are you sure it was them? We picked up quite a few bloodsucker scents; it could be any of those._

_Why else would the Cullens leave so quickly?_

No one had an answer to that. The pack ran on across the white.

XxXxXxXxX

So it was that the four avenging wolves travelled across the whole of north America, from an Indian Reservation in Washington to a boring town in Maine. And so it was that the vampire and the shapeshifter in the forest were hit by the wolf scent. And at least one of them knew that it signalled fast-approaching trouble.

……………

"Werewolves? Seriously? Like, human-dog hybrid, howling at the moon type werewolves?"

Jasper spared a second to shoot her a withering look, before returning to his frenetic pacing, which is what he'd been doing before Kira interrupted. He flicked from one side of the clearing to the other in seconds, not even bothering to appear human.

"Why would they come here? I thought Sam would except us from the treaty – Edward _said_ that was his plan. This should not be happening…"

"Um, I hate to interrupt the panic-spiral, but care to enlighten me? What's so bad about werewolves? I mean, sure they smell a bit weird but it really doesn't seem _that _bad."

"You're incapable of seriousness, aren't you?"

"Yep. It's a talent. So come on, _explain._"

"Werewolves… you know how in vampire myths wolves are vampires' worst enemies?"

"Sure…"

"Well, in real life there's something similar. The wolves aren't quite like the ones in the stories."

"No full moon?"

"No full moon. They can change – it's called phasing – whenever they want. They have a higher body temperature than humans… You're not going to make me list it all, are you? I need to get this news to my family."

"I think I should avoid that discussion. Call me when it's over."

………………

As Kira loped wild-cat formed through the forest and Jasper shot along the edge of the road too fast to really be visible, the wolves converged near-silently in the very depths of the forest, and phased back to human to talk.

"We need to act fast." Jake was taking control; he was the alpha. "That girl is in danger. In the last two places the Cullens visited, that vampire there killed people."

"What are we still doing here then?" Embry asked.

"Two reasons. First, the Elders made a treaty with the vampires and I think we should give the treaty one last shot and at least try to solve it democratically; and second, if we wait until night then there's less chance of a human wandering past and getting hurt."

"Good plan, bossman."

"Whatever, Leah. So we wait until it's dark."

…………………

"Werewolves!" Jasper crashed into the Cullen house and instantly had everyone's attention.

"Damn it!" Edward had pulled the complete explanation from Jasper's mind. "I thought Sam would have more of an open mind than this. You're sure it was the Quileute wolves?"

Jasper gave him a look. "You think I could mistake a stench like that?"

Emmett laughed – as normal, the serious atmosphere couldn't dampen his mood. "Who cares about the wolves? We can take them out if we have to."

"We will not do any 'taking out'." Carlisle's words were surprisingly harsh. "We are not going to turn into murderers. And we will find a way to settle this without violence, do you all understand?"

Everyone nodded, not used to this side of Carlisle.

"Jasper, did you find out why they're here?" Esme asked.

"No. I didn't see them. But whatever they're here for can't be good. They don't like leaving the reservation unguarded. It's possible only a few have come anyway. I can't see them leaving no defence for the rest of the tribe."

Carlisle nodded, absorbing Jasper's words. Although his dark history was something none of them were proud of, it was helpful at times like this.

"What if they give us no choice? Will you fight them as a last resort?" The question was quiet, but they all heard it. And knew the reason behind it. The training from the newborn army still held strong – he needed to prepare for any possibility of outcome.

Carlisle sighed before answering. "The very last resort. Remember that."

**So, finally you can get an update! A review perchance? **


	14. Danger

**I forgot to mention this, I think: for maybe a few chapters this is going to seem seriously anti-werewolf. It's not. It just seems that way. No werewolf-lovers are allowed to come and attack me in my sleep (including you, Idril!).**

**Inspiration music (or just generally amazing music if you don't need inspiration): E.S Posthumus – Unstoppable is a good place to start but all of it's amazing. Also, 100 Monkeys are fab too.**

**Sorry for the wait, I had massive block, and then an even massiver article I needed to get done for my school magazine. But I semi-promised to get an update before Friday, so that cued intense panic-writing!**

Danger

Kira was sitting at the computer in her room when Jasper slid in through the window and sat down next to her.

"Why haven't you yelled at me for sneaking up and giving you a heart attack yet?" he asked.

"Saw your reflection in the mirror, which if you think about it is actually quite ironic considering you're a vampire and all."

"Nice to see you're staying sharp." He leaned against the edge of the desk. "What were you looking up?"

"Werewolf legends."

He laughed when she said that. "I came to talk to you about that, actually. The wolves aren't exactly on great terms with us at the moment, so I wanted to ask you to stay out of the woods until we solve these issues."

"You think they'd take me out?"

"I think it's possible they'd mistake you for a normal animal, or think that what you are makes you a threat. Will you at least try to avoid them?"

She pushed back from the desk and flicked the computer's power switch off. "Sure. You're the conflict expert, so I guess you probably give good advice."

He smiled at that. "Probably I give better advice than some. And there's another thing."

He paused, trying to find the right way to say it, and Kira picked up on the sudden silence. "What?"

"Well, it's a message from Rosalie, actually."

"Say what?" She blinked at him.

"Yeah, that's what I said. But she said to tell you that – and these are her words, not mine – 'You have enough of a tough time without me, so I'm going to stop being such a bitch and accept you. Live up to it.'"

"'Live up to it'? Seriously?"

"That's what she said."

Kira thought about this for a few seconds. "Wow. I have a new fan."

That made Jasper laugh. "Don't let her hear you saying that."

"So, what else transpired at the anti-werewolf-league meeting?"

"How much caffeine have you had?"

She gave him a death glare. "Oh, you are hilarious sometimes. Seriously, though. What are you guys going to do about the wolves? And why are they even here?"

He sighed, realising he'd have to give her a full explanation. "When the family – I wasn't actually with them yet – first encountered the wolves, they drew up a treaty. You see, the wolves are descendants of the Quileute tribe, from the reservation on the coast of Washington state. For years, the wolves would destroy any vampires who came near to stop them harming the tribe. When my family met them, they made the treaty so that none of us would go onto Quileute land or bite a human ever again. In return, the wolves would leave us in peace and neither group would reveal the existence of wolves and vampires to the humans."

Kira made the link at that point. "Not _bite_ any humans, you say?"

Jasper nodded. "Yeah, so obviously by turning Bella, Edward broke the treaty. And I've not helped matters."

"What do you mean?" He didn't need to be an empath to read the concern in her eyes.

"After… after Alice died, I went off the rails a bit. I spent a month living like a traditional vampire. And then even after I came back to the vegetarian life, I slipped up – _again – _and so I'd say the treaty was in shreds now rather than just a little broken." His voice was bitter, some of his self-hatred slipping in.

She watched his with her eyes filled with secrets. Her emotions were running high, but there was none of the disgust that he was expecting.

"Why aren't you scared of me? Why don't you find me repelling for what I've done?"

She shook her head. "It's what you are. We've already gone through this so many times. You will _never_ get me to hate you."

"You want to bet on that?"

"I would, but I feel guilty taking all your money like this." The moment of tension dissipated swiftly.

"You really are incapable of staying serious. So, are you aright with me telling you about not going around in the woods by yourself? You don't think I'm trying to control your life or stalk you or anything?"

She snorted. "Sweetie, if you wanted to do either of those you could find much more effective ways of doing it instead of just _asking_ me."

He gave her a look that showed he was not impressed. "I'm sure I could, and if you ever call me sweetie again I might just use some of them."

"Now who's incapable of keeping serious?"

"Okay, okay, _enough_. I take back the serious point. But really, you need to listen to me. And Carlisle wants to include you in a kind of grand overall strategy meeting tonight. He didn't call it that, but that's what it is."

"Sure, provided I can get out of the house undetected and get a ride out to your place."

"You looking for another ride in the Lamborghini?"

"If I say no will you know if I'm lying?"

"I know everything. So yes."

"In that case, yes I want to see that car again. And I will find a way out of the house. See you guys then."

………………

_Being in a house of vampires at night,_ Kira thought as the sleek black car purred to a stop outside the Cullen house, _is really creepy_.

"You guys are creepy at night," she told Jasper—mainly because she had a tough shell to maintain. It was surprisingly difficult for her to not soften around Jasper. Something about him stripped her defences to nothing in seconds.

"Thanks. You're creepy too." He didn't seem offended, at least.

It was very dark—it was very late, which was the reason why. The moonlight gave the pale vampires a weird semi-glittering effect. That was what had inspired the comment on creepiness—in the dark, vampires look a lot like ghosts. The thought made Kira shiver—vampires, werewolves, ghosts. One was something you could handle with a little time. Two pushed the boundaries of possible. Three… she _really_ hoped ghosts didn't exist too.

"As far as I know, they don't." Edward's voice made her jump—silent as ghosts too.

"Yeah, because _that's_ solid evidence against them." Sharp comments are a good way to deflect attention when you're already jumpy and more than a little scared. Fortunately, Jasper noticed the negative swirl of emoting and hit her with a lift of optimism and light. "What does or doesn't exist?"

"Ghosts."

"That's a debate for another time."

There was a harsh cracking noise that made Kira leap round, twisting to see what had happened. One of the large boulders that she'd got used to stepping around outside the Cullen house was laying a lot further from where it should be, in shattered fragments and gravel. Edward's face was filled with livid fury.

"It's too late for strategy—they're already _here!_"

**Sorry sorry about the wait again (does this help guys? No killing!!! And a nice long cliff-hanger!!) **


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